[Sgnardellis]

I’ve been following the conversations on how to mod the M1060s with interest because I’ve had them in constant comparison mode with the Hifiman HE-500s since I got them. From the get go I’d been hoping they would quickly dethrone the HE-500s as my daily go-to headphone. Ah yeah, it didn’t happen right away despite the overtime hypetrain.


Just as a sidenote mine are V1 and I got them after adding my name to the contact list as soon as I found out Monoprice was coming out with these. I could see the potential right away.


From first listen I was quite impressed with the tone and clarity of these phones, even on the lower frequencies the bass remained clear and in that regard they are better than the HE-500s which tend to lose tautness in the lower frequencies. What the M1060s were lacking in my auditory terms was BODY! This is something the HE-500s excel at. The Hifiman HE-500s produce what I call full-body music, especially when you give them the current they need. I’ve got mine hooked up to the speaker posts of a Luxman LV-103 tube hybrid amplifier. And yes they are very good that away! (I have the M1060s plugged into the headphone out, it is far easier to drive than the HE-500.) So now how to make the M1060s play in the same league?


So back to the mods. First of all I had no interest in changing pads. I quite like the stock pads and did not want to add more expense to a budget phone, so the mods had to take that parameter into account. The paper mod has been suggested many times in this thread so I tried that. For me it thinned out the sound even more than stock. I then tried acoustic cloth on top of the foam and in my recollection that took away some of the bass and muffled the lower frequencies. I also tried going foamless but that resulted in piercing highs, aargh! All along this watchtower I was comparing the resulting sound with the HE-500s and the M1060s were coming up short. And then . . .


Why not try using the acoustic cloth next to the driver underneath the foam? I did that and the result -- a superlative headphone that is bringing it to the Hifimans and is full-bodied with the added bonus it still has all that crystal clear tonality and pulling more detail from the music. Finally, in this modded form the M1060s are clearly better than the HE-500s.


I do not have a measuring rig nor am I technically inclined that way. Anyone else who is so inclined can do the measurement. For me the challenge was auditory, trying to bring this phone to the performance level the HE-500s.


Here are some pictures that tell the story. The acoustic cloth is similar to what you would find outside desktop size speakers for example. As you can see from the pictures the material is thin and see-through. I cut it into a circle slightly smaller than the diameter of the foam pad. Caveat: this mod is geared towards keeping the stock pads in place so I am not sure how it would play out for those using third-party pads like Audeze.


If anyone else tries this please report back with results.

This is actually really interesting because I was looking around and noticed the LCD-3 uses a small thin foam or fabric above the driver output under their main foam. I have some supplies from my t50 modding and was thinking about adding something like this instead of the paper towel I'll give it a try.

 

[fpantalone]

Would you guys think the M1060s would fit in the HiFiMAN Travel Case for HE-560 and HE-400i? Do you know a case in which the M100 would fit folded flat?

The 1060 comes with a travel case ... a big honkin' one

 

[RojasTKD]

Never heard the 400s ,, M1060 for me is more exciting than 400i ,, (i own both)
m1060 ,, have better mids , much much better bass , smaller sound stage ,
400i ,, have better build quality larger sound stage , more relaxed sound (very nice with jaz)
i would take the m1060 over the 400i , but if not 400i come second ..

It's been a while since I listened to the to the 400i, but from memory I can't really say the bass is better on the M1060. I found it similar to me HE-500s as I do with the M1060. Can't really personally say one is better than the other, though probably a bit different.

What I can say is the my HE-500 had noticeably superior vocal to my 400i. I currently think the HE-500 has better vocals then my M1060 (only paper towel mod so far) but it is more subtle. So with the listening I've done so far I can agree that the that the M1060 will outperform the 400i in this regard.

Time will the how the Audeze pads will make it even better.

 

[Sgnardellis]

This is actually really interesting because I was looking around and noticed the LCD-3 uses a small thin foam or fabric above the driver output under their main foam. I have some supplies from my t50 modding and was thinking about adding something like this instead of the paper towel I'll give it a try.

That's it under the wires. It's even shown in their exploded diagram. A little rectangle of acoustic something.

 

[Terja]

I had no idea. That they did it that way is interesting and makes it worth exploring. The M1060 has a very similar driver structure.

 

[fpantalone]

I’ve been following the conversations on how to mod the M1060s with interest because I’ve had them in constant comparison mode with the Hifiman HE-500s since I got them. From the get go I’d been hoping they would quickly dethrone the HE-500s as my daily go-to headphone. Ah yeah, it didn’t happen right away despite the overtime hypetrain.


Just as a sidenote mine are V1 and I got them after adding my name to the contact list as soon as I found out Monoprice was coming out with these. I could see the potential right away.


From first listen I was quite impressed with the tone and clarity of these phones, even on the lower frequencies the bass remained clear and in that regard they are better than the HE-500s which tend to lose tautness in the lower frequencies. What the M1060s were lacking in my auditory terms was BODY! This is something the HE-500s excel at. The Hifiman HE-500s produce what I call full-body music, especially when you give them the current they need. I’ve got mine hooked up to the speaker posts of a Luxman LV-103 tube hybrid amplifier. And yes they are very good that away! (I have the M1060s plugged into the headphone out, it is far easier to drive than the HE-500.) So now how to make the M1060s play in the same league?


So back to the mods. First of all I had no interest in changing pads. I quite like the stock pads and did not want to add more expense to a budget phone, so the mods had to take that parameter into account. The paper mod has been suggested many times in this thread so I tried that. For me it thinned out the sound even more than stock. I then tried acoustic cloth on top of the foam and in my recollection that took away some of the bass and muffled the lower frequencies. I also tried going foamless but that resulted in piercing highs, aargh! All along this watchtower I was comparing the resulting sound with the HE-500s and the M1060s were coming up short. And then . . .


Why not try using the acoustic cloth next to the driver underneath the foam? I did that and the result -- a superlative headphone that is bringing it to the Hifimans and is full-bodied with the added bonus it still has all that crystal clear tonality and pulling more detail from the music. Finally, in this modded form the M1060s are clearly better than the HE-500s.


I do not have a measuring rig nor am I technically inclined that way. Anyone else who is so inclined can do the measurement. For me the challenge was auditory, trying to bring this phone to the performance level the HE-500s.


Here are some pictures that tell the story. The acoustic cloth is similar to what you would find outside desktop size speakers for example. As you can see from the pictures the material is thin and see-through. I cut it into a circle slightly smaller than the diameter of the foam pad. Caveat: this mod is geared towards keeping the stock pads in place so I am not sure how it would play out for those using third-party pads like Audeze.


If anyone else tries this please report back with results.

At the risk of sounding absurd ... You gave me an idea. I had some black cloth that came with my ATH-MSR7's that looked very much what you are using. Not the satin sheen stuff, but the sheet of very thin, matt black gauzy material. I cut out some 3' circles, replaced the P-towels with the black cloth, and put the stock pads back on. Nope ... not working for me. Still too shouty. So I put the Vegans back on (I think the key to reducing the shouts), took the 3" P-towels and cut them down to 1.75", put them next to the foam, and then the black cloth 3" over top, which also hides the white nicely. To me ... it restores a little more sparkle lost with the Vegans and P-towel mod, as well as a little more bass impact restored from that mod as well. Just a little tweak to both your mod and the cskippy mod. And I'm stopping there

 

[sabloke]

I used some of orange heavy duty wiper pieces under the foam. The sound has indeed more body but sound stage might be a bit reduced and still not sure on the highs, are they further rolled or not. This headphone is fun to mod for sure

 

[GU1DO]

It's been a while since I listened to the to the 400i, but from memory I can't really say the bass is better on the M1060. I found it similar to me HE-500s as I do with the M1060. Can't really personally say one is better than the other, though probably a bit different.

What I can say is the my HE-500 had noticeably superior vocal to my 400i. I currently think the HE-500 has better vocals then my M1060 (only paper towel mod so far) but it is more subtle. So with the listening I've done so far I can agree that the that the M1060 will outperform the 400i in this regard.

Time will the how the Audeze pads will make it even better.

hmm ,, i never heard the he500 , but from live comparison ,,
i really prefer the bass of the M1060 , it have more presence than the 400i

 

[sabloke]

The 1060 comes with a travel case ... a big honkin' one

That's not only huge but it is also flimsy and doesn't protect the headphone at all. Ideally I'd find a reasonably rigid one one to fit the headphone flat.

 

[Terja]

I used some of orange heavy duty wiper pieces under the foam. The sound has indeed more body but sound stage might be a bit reduced and still not sure on the highs, are they further rolled or not. This headphone is fun to mod for sure

Part of the reason for using fabric against the driver is that there is less risk of it breaking down and falling onto the diaphragm which would really wreck havoc on the sound. Is there another kind of material you can try? Any kind of paper is probably not the best to use against the driver side. [Maybe I'm wrong. Is it paper?]

 

[sabloke]

No, that is not paper and it is not breaking down.

 

[abm0]

m1060 ,, have better mids , much much better bass , smaller sound stage ,
400i ,, have better build quality larger sound stage , more relaxed sound (very nice with jaz)

M1060 soundstage < HE-400i soundstage? O_o
From what I've read of the 400i's soundstage, that assessment doesn't sound good at all for the M1060, especially if it loses even more stage when modded.

Why not try using the acoustic cloth next to the driver underneath the foam? I did that and the result -- a superlative headphone that is bringing it to the Hifimans and is full-bodied with the added bonus it still has all that crystal clear tonality and pulling more detail from the music. Finally, in this modded form the M1060s are clearly better than the HE-500s.

Nice job, it really stands to reason that only bad things can come from having an empty chamber with solid walls behind the driver and that in order to prevent that whatever materials you add there should sit flush against the driver opening. But one thing that nobody mentions much with all these rear mods: OK, you've tuned the frequency response more to your liking, but what about the soundstage? Has it suffered at all?

 

[Pahani]

Just got my M1060 and gave a quick listen. Here are my initial impressions:

- Found them a little on the bright side.
- They sounded pretty good but I wasn't blown away.
- Vocal seems to have an "edge" to them, not sure how to describe it.
- I felt as these was some grain or somehow lacking clarity. Maybe it's just adjusting to the new headphone.
- I do see promise in these.
-I'm content with the build quality, though I do find the gimbal (I think that's what it's called) a little thinner than I'd like.
- They also double as desktop speaker... lol they leak a lot more sound then my HE-500s.

I'm not a big believer in burn in. I know I can have a different opinion on second and third listen with or without burn in, but will burn them in today regardless, as to not incur the wrath of those here.

The Audeze pad I ordered from B&H are back ordered, so I wont have those for some time. But I hope they make as big a difference as suggested here.

If you're not a believer in burn-in......you will be. Do NOT be hasty to judge these cans.

 

[GU1DO]

M1060 soundstage < HE-400i soundstage? O_o
From what I've read of the 400i's soundstage, that assessment doesn't sound good at all for the M1060, especially if it loses even more stage when modded.

not bad news at all ,, some of the best high end headphones have small sound stage (Utopia , LCD3)
anyway the imaging is more focused and accurate which will compensate for the smaller sound stage.
btw the deference is not night and day ,, but it is noticeable.

 

[Tysun]

That's not only huge but it is also flimsy and doesn't protect the headphone at all. Ideally I'd find a reasonably rigid one one to fit the headphone flat.

The original 'travel case' ain't a case. It's a vault. Put it in your luggage and you will have zero room for any other stuff to bring along.